NCAA retreat set to tackle several critical reform issues

By Steve Wieberg, USA TODAY

Amid a more than year-long drumbeat of scandal and calls for a fix, dozens of key administrators gather in Indianapolis Tuesday to begin three days of meetings that they say could usher in significant changes in college athletics.

David J. Phillip, AP

NCAA President Mark Emmert seeks "serious action" from the two-day presidential retreat he has organized in Indianapolis. The meeting begins Tuesday.

NCAA President Mark Emmert seeks "serious action" from the two-day presidential retreat he has organized in Indianapolis. The meeting begins Tuesday.

NCAA President Mark Emmert has summoned 54 university presidents and chancellors and 13 other school and conference officials to a two-day retreat ending Wednesday and leading into a meeting Thursday of the NCAA Division I board of directors. They'll address issues ranging from rules compliance — or lack of it — to sentiment for getting more money to athletes and attacking academic shortcomings in the marquee sports of football and men's basketball.

The retreat is designed to kick start a round of reforms in the coming year and beyond, though some initial action could be taken as early as the board meeting Thursday. Various NCAA panels, for instance, already have weighed a number of academic measures, including a requirement that incoming freshmen with questionable academic backgrounds stay out of competition for a year while they steady themselves in the classroom.

The question hanging over the meetings is whether the NCAA will back strong talk in recent months with action.

"I have little interest — in fact no interest — in simply having conversations for their own sake," says Emmert, who moved from the president's office at the University of Washington to the NCAA last October. "If we can't convert these conversations into some serious action, then the retreat won't have been a success."

"I think it's too early to define where it's going, whether it's in the area of compliance, (expanding scholarships to cover) full cost of attendance or the possibility of multiyear scholarships," he says. "It's more college presidents and athletics directors and coaches, as well as commissioners, stepping back and saying, 'This isn't playing out the way it should be playing out in the best interest of higher education and college athletics, and it's time to make some adjustments.' You couple that with new and fresh leadership at the top in the NCAA. That, to me, seems like a recipe for change and change in a good direction."

The most common refrain is to improve the lot of athletes, whether by bumping up their scholarships to take care of travel, laundry and other incidental expenses — in addition to room, board, books and tuition — or allowing them more access to agents and advice on professional careers.

The scholarship debate could be telling. Schools with lower-profile, lower-budget athletics programs likely will be asked to allow richer programs to add an average of several thousand dollars to the value of their scholarships, disregarding the recruiting advantage it affords. Schools simply would have the option of making the change.

That sentiment has grown as the NCAA, football's Bowl Championship Series and top-tier conferences have negotiated rich new television contracts in recent years.

"We have to recognize that the one-size-fits-all approach may not work in all cases," Emmert says. "When we look at full-cost-of-attendance scholarships, for example, the answer that works for the Big 12 may look different than the one for (a lower-echelon) conference.

"We need to be able to create some flexibility so we don't just throw up our hands and say, 'Well, we can't do everything because it doesn't work for everybody.'"

One issue not scheduled to be tackled: the lack of a major-college football playoff and unpopularity of the 13-year-old, championship-deciding BCS.

"If the presidents want to bring it up, sure, we'll talk about it," Emmert says. "It's not on my agenda right now. I'm trying to keep us focused on the issues we all face together (in Division I) and not get buried in what we do with the BCS."

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